



American History from German 
Archives. 

BY J. G. ROSENGARTEN. 



(Read before the American Philosophical Society, 
April 16, 1900.) 



American History from German 
Archives. 

BY J. G. ROSENGARTEN. 



(Read before the American Philosophical Society, 
April i6, igoo.) 



While a body of able historians, McMaster, Rhoades, Fisk,- 
Schouler and others, are enriching the world by an admirable series 
of works on American history, there still remains another field for 
historical research of interest and value. There are in Germany 
many papers dealing with the services of the Germans who were 
here as soldiers under the British flag and took an active and im- 
portant part in the War of American Independence. Bancroft and' 
Lowell, Kapp and Ratterman have collected and used such mate- 
rial as they could gather. General Stryker, in his History of the- 
Battle of Trenton, has added largely to our stock of material for a 
better knowledge of the contents of the German Archives, still 
carefully preserved at Marburg and Berlin ; and other collections of 
German records. It was through Kapp's labors that Bancroft 
added to his own collections, now belonging to the New York Pub- 
lic Library, and deposited in the Lenox Library of that city. These 
include Steuben's letters, Riedesel's papers, the Anspach papers, 
the Brunswick papers, Ewald's Feldzug der Hessen nach Atnerika, 
Geschichte der Hessichen Yager in Amerkanischen Kriege, fourteen 

REPRINTED FROM PROC. AMER. PHILOS. SOC. VOL. XXXIX. XO. 162. 



^ KOSEISrGARTEJSr — AMERICAN HISTORY. 

volumes of German MSS., diaries and journals of Wiederhold, 
Malzburg, the Lossberg Regiment, von Malsingen, Papet, Wieder- 
hold, the Third Waldeck Regiment, Lotheisen, Reuber, Piel, 
Dohla, RufFer, Dinklage, the Hessian Yager Regiment and many 
volumes of reports on the battles of Long Island, Bennington, the 
Brandywine, and State papers relating to Prussia and America, 
Prussia and France, Prussia and Holland, Prussia and England and 
Washington and Frederick the Great, in all forty MS. volumes 
bearing on the American Revolution. 

Sparks in his collection, now deposited in the Library of Harvard 
University, had a collection of papers of Steuben, the MS. of 
DeKalb's mission to America in 1768 (since printed in part in 
French), and the correspondence of Frederick the Great with his 
Ministers in London and Paris during the American War of Inde- 
pendence, procured in Berlin in 1844 by Wheaton, then American 
Minister there. In the Magazine of American History for 1877 
there is a translation by A. A. Bierstadt of Bauermeister's Narra- 
tive of the Capture of New York, addressed to Captain vonWangen- 
heim. This was part of the Bancroft collection. In the same 
volume is De Lancey's account of the capture of Fort Washington, 
with a map, from the original in Cassel, obtained by Prof. Joy for 
Mr. J. Carson Brevoort. The New York Historical Society has 
printed the journal of Krafft, a volunteer and corporal in Donop's 
regiment and a lieutenant in that of von Bose, who married in New 
York, became a clerk in the Treasury Department at Washington 
and died there in 1804. That Society has also printed \h^ Journal 
<of Getieral Rainsford, the British commissary in charge of the 
German forces sent to this country by Great Britain. General 
Stryker obtained from the Archives at Marburg and Cassel many 
important papers freely and well used in his capital history of the 
Battle of Trenton. They include the court of inquiry of the Loss- 
berg, Knyphausen and Rail regiments, lists of their officers and 
of those of the artillery and Yagers ; maps by Wiederhold, Fischer 
and Piel; the letters of Donop and Rail, of the Elector of Hesse 
to Knyphausen ; diaries of Piel, Mmnigerode, Wiederhold and 
Ewald; reports of Donop's spies; and altogether some twenty 
MSS., all dealing with the battle of Trenton. 

Mr. Charles Gross gave, in the New York Evenitig Post, an ac- 
count of his visit to the Marburg Archives, where he found the 
journal of the Hessian corps in America under General v. Heister ; 



} i' 



EOSENGARTEN — AMERICAN HISTORY. 3 

reports of Heister and of his successor in command, v. Knyphau- 
sen, and many hundreds of unbound papers. In the Kriegs 
Archiv (the War Office) in Berlin there are many official reports 
and many papers not arranged or catalogued, 

Frederick Kapp described the Marburg Archives as including 
ten folio volumes of paper relating to the part taken by the Hessian 
corps in the American Revolution, the negotiations of the Land- 
grave and his Minister, v. Schlieffen, with the English Government, 
the correspondence of the commanding officers, with reports of opera- 
tions, maps, sketches, etc. There are three volumes of the pro- 
ceedings of the court-martial on the battle of Trenton, a number 
of Hessian war records indexed by Colonel Sturmfeder and hun- 
dreds of letters written by officers to their families, who were 
directed by the Landgrave to send them to him for perusal — invol- 
untary but very good and complete witnesses of what they saw in 
America. Mr. J. Edward Lowell, author of that capital book, 
The Hessians in the American Revolution, in a paper printed in the 
second volume, second series of Massachusetts Historical Society's 
Proceedings, speaks of thirty-seven regimental journals and twelve 
volumes of papers at Marburg, and twenty-five in Cassel, in addi- 
tion to a large collection in Berlin, a fragment of a journal of the 
Waldeck regiment at Arolsen, and that of an officer of the Anspach 
regiment in the Anspach Library. In his Hessians in America, 
Mr. Lowell refers to a dozen diaries and journals in the collection 
at Cassel. A copy of one of these, that of Wiederhold, which I 
own, covers the period from October 7, 1776, to December 7, 1780, 
with seventeen colored maps, plans, etc. At the end there is a note 
that Wiederhold died in Cassel in 1805, when the original 
descended to his son, who died at Marburg in 1863. From him it 
passed to his son, who went to America in 1880, but since then 
has not been heard from, so that the orignal has been lost or is, at 
least, no longer accessible. Bancroft and Washington Irving used 
copies (without the maps, etc.) made for them and speak of it as 
very valuable. Bound up with my copy are extracts from letters of 
Henel and Henkelman and Ries, giving an account of the capture 
of Fort Washington and the order changing the name to Fort 
Knyphausen ; a list of the Hessian regiments and their comman- 
ders, and a memorandum that each battalion was ordered to keep 
an exact journal in duplicate, of which one copy was to be filed in 
the State Archives ; lists of the troops sent to America and their 



4 ROSENGARTEN — AMERICAN HISTORY, 

organization and general and field officers ; list of casualties at 
the capture of Fort Washington, signed by Knyphausen ; a bibli- 
ography of German books on the share of the German troops in 
the American War of Independence, among them the memoirs of 
Ochs and Senden, who lived to be general officers; various maga- 
zine articles on the same subject ; the diary of a Hessian officer, Lt. 
V. Heister, in the Zeitschrift fur Kunst des Krieges, Berlin, 1828 ; a 
fragment of an apparently original diary of a soldier, a copy of 
that of Rechnagel ; extracts from the journal of Donop, and from 
that of the court of inquiry on the battle of Trenton ; with reports 
of the Lossberg, Knyphausen and Rail regiments in that affair, and 
of Schaffer, Matthaeus, Baum, Pauli, Biel, Martin, all dated Phila- 
delphia, 1778, and the finding of the court, dated April 23, 1782, 
and a fragment of its report. The author of this diary, Andreas 
Wiederhold, was a lieutenant in Rail's regiment and afterwards 
captain in the Knyphausen regiment. Lowell, in his capital book 
on The Hcssiatis in America, makes frequent use of this diary, and 
in a note says that Ewald mentions Wiederhold as distinguished in 
1762, so that he could not have been a very young man when he 
served here. Lowell used a copy in the Cassel Library, and notes 
that " it was made from the original by the husband of Wieder- 
hold's granddaughter, and contains several interesting appendices," 
so mine may be a counterpart. 

For many years Germany showed a good deal of regret for the 
part played by its soldiers in the English service in our struggle for 
independence. With her own rise and growth in importance as a 
nation, she has begun to assert the value of the services of the Ger- 
man allies of the British army. Eelking wrote an exhaustive his- 
tory of their achievements, and Kapp a valuable book on the sub- 
ject. Not long since a Hessian, Treller, published quite a good 
historical novel, Forgotten Heroes, in which he paid tribute to the 
Germans who fought under the English flag in America. Re- 
cently, another German author, Moritz von Berg, printed a long 
historical romance on the same subject, dedicated to the great- 
grandson of General von Heister, the leader of the Hessian sol- 
diers in America. The story is drawn largely from the papers of 
the times still preserved in the public offices and by private fami- 
lies in the country which sent its sons to fight here. The scenes 
•described contrast the home-life of the Hessians at the time and 
the new country in which the young soldiers made their campaigns. 



ROSENGARTEN — AMERICAN HISTORY. 5 

and the historical portion deals with the Elector of Hesse and his 
share in supplying soldiers to his cousin, the King of England, to 
help in reducing his rebellious subjects in America. The events of 
the American War of Independence are followed very closely, and 
in an appendix are a number of hitherto unprinted letters and some 
documents drawn from the Archives at Marburg and from Eelking 
and other historical sources. 

The book has value and interest as showing that Germany to-day 
takes a curious pride in the share her sons played in the history of 
the United States. Of even greater interest is the diary of a Hes- 
sian officer at the time of the American War of Independence, 
recently printed at Pyritz, on the anniversary of the founding of 
the Royal Bismarck Gymnasium of that place. It is the journal of 
Captain von Dornberg, preserved by his family at their home in 
Hesse. It covers the period from March, 1779, to June, 1781, and 
gives his letters home from the time he left with his command until 
his return on the staff of General Knyphausen. There is a brief histor- 
ical sketch of the War of American Independence, intended for the 
use of the boys of the Gymnasium or High School, and a short sketch 
of the life of the writer, who, after serving in the war with Napo- 
leon and later as Hessian Minister in London, died in Cassel in 
1819. His diary, journal and letters are mostly written in French, 
for that was the court language of the day, and his clever pencil 
sketches served to heighten their interest for the home circle, while 
their preservation until their recent publication shows that his 
descendants are not ashamed of his share of that service, which at 
least made America better known to the people of Germany, while 
it gave them lessons of value for their own improvement in the art of 
war. Although the campaigns took him through both North and 
South, it is characteristic of the German fidelity to duty that his de- 
scriptions are limited to his own modest share in the business of sol- 
diering, and that he nowhere gives the slightest intimation that he 
saw the future greatness of the new republic. In this respect he and 
his countrymen were greatly unlike the French, whose letters and 
descriptions were full of their anticipations of the country to whose 
independence they contributed alike in men and money. The Dorn- 
berg diary, however, has the value of an original and hitherto un- 
printed addition to the contemporary records of the American 
Revolution by one who did his best to prevent its successful issue. 

Then there are novels by Spielhagen and by Norden, dealing 



6 ROSENGARTEN — AMERICAN HISTORY. 

with the adventures of the German soldiers serving in the English 
army in the American Revolution. 

The editor of the Dornberg diary, Gotthold Marseille, head- 
master of the Gymnasium at Pyritz, speaks of a privately printed 
family history of the Schlieffens, belonging to the present head of 
the family living in Pyritz, with a full account of the negotiations 
of Count Martin von Schlieffen, as Minister of Landgraf Freder- 
ick II of Hesse Cassel, with Colonel Faucit as the representative 
of George III. He also refers to Ewald's book on Light Infan- 
try, published in Cassel in 1785, on his return from America, where 
he had learned many useful lessons, afterwards put in practice in 
his reorganization of the German troops for service in the wars 
with Napoleon. The continuation of Dornberg' s diary will add 
another to the numerous list of original papers by those who ac- 
tually served here. 

Pausch's journal was printed by Stone as No. 14 of MunseW s 
Historical Series, Albany, 1887, and as he was chief of the Hanau 
artillery during Burgoyne's campaign it has, of course, special in- 
terest. General Stryker got through Mr. Pendleton, then Minister 
in Berlin, an order from the younger Bismarck, then an assistant to 
his father, to examine the records at Marburg, and through a Ger- 
man, long resident in Trenton, he procured about a thousand pages 
of MS., covering everything relating to the Hessians at Trenton. 
The substance of this is now published in General Stryker's admir- 
able and exhaustive History of the Battle of Trenton, rich in its 
original material, reproduced in text and notes and appendices for 
students of history. Taking advantage of the fact that a nephew 
was studying at Marburg, I wrote to him that Lowell said a descrip- 
tive catalogue of the Archives there relating to the American War 
of Independence could be made for six hundred marks, and asked 
him to call on Dr. Konnicke, for many years in charge. In reply 
to questions on the subject, he said it would cost four or five thou- 
sand marks and take a long time, adding that Eelking was too 
biassed to be trustworthy and he (Konnicke) had no sympathy 
with Americans. He, however, showed his collection of Berichte, 
Tagebiicher, registers, letters between the Landgraf and Knyphau- 
sen. An assistant was much more agreeable and ready to give all the 
help in his power, and I still think that such a catalogue of the 
American records at Marburg would be well worth getting. The 
renewed interest of the Hessians in the part their ancestors took 



ROSENGARTEN-— AMERICAN HISTORY. 7 

in the American War of Independence is shown in a lecture on the 
subject by Colonel v. Werthern, of the Hussar Regiment Hesse 
Homburg, delivered by him at the officers' Casino and printed at 
Cassel in 1895. He refers to Eelking and to von Pfister's unfin- 
ished work on the same subject, Cassel, 1864, and to letters 
printed in the Preussische Militdr Wochenblatt in 1833, and in 
the second volume of the Kurkessischen Zeitschrift. Colonel v. 
Werthern says his special purpose is to enlist the interest of owners of 
letters and journals of those who took part in the war, some of which 
had been shown to him. The publication of the Dornberg diary 
shows that good results have followed his appeal. He estimates 
the number who remained in America as about 4500, and no doubt 
many of them became good Americans. He mentions the fact that 
the young volunteer, Ochs, who has left a capital book on his expe- 
riences as a soldier in America, rose to be a general in the Hessian 
army, and left a son who served from 1836 to 1850, and finally 
was in command of the regiment which Colonel v. Werthern was 
addressing in 1895. 

Not without interest is Popp's diary — he was a soldier in the 
Bayreuth Anspach regiment — who came to this country in his 
twenty-second year, an illiterate young fellow. He began his 
diary on June 26, 1777, and carried it on after his return home* 
adding some curious verses — Das Lied von Ausmarsch, and Geden- 
ken iiber die Hergabe der beiden Markgrafthiimer Bayreuth u. 
Anspach in Franken an das Konigliche Haus-Preussen — in which, 
with great patience and ingenuity, the left-hand column is a strong 
thanksgiving, but reading across the lines there is a right-hand 
column in which the Lord's Prayer is so divided as to change 
the sense into a bitter diatribe for this transfer of sovereignty. 
The original is preserved in the City Library of Bayreuth. It 
closes with some notes as late as 1796, and has some very good 
maps of the operations on the Hudson, on the Delaware and 
around Philadelphia. The copy of it which I own was made for 
me at Bayreuth, but the Librarian there said that he knew of nO' 
other material of the kind preserved in either public or private col- 
lections in that quaint old town so full of memories of the eigh- 
teenth century. In a little book of Stories of Hessian War His- 
tory, by Freiherr v. Ditfiirth — the name is of interest as it was that 
of one of the Hessian regiments which served here — there is a state- 
ment that from one Hessian village thirty men were sent with vari- 



8 ROSEN GARTEN — AMERICAN HISTORY. 

ous regiments to America, and twelve of them were heads of fami- 
lies. Reuber's diary shows that of these thirty only two died here 
and one remained in America. A large proportion of the so-called 
Hessians were volunteers from other parts of Germany, attracted 
by the high pay and the good care given by the British to their 
soldiers. In those days of distress and need, Germans were only 
too glad to escape compulsory military service in Prussia and other 
German States by volunteering in the regiments raised for the 
American war and its prospect of a new home. 

Ditfurth demonstrates the utter falsity of the pretended letter of 
the Prince of Hesse Cassel, dated Rome, February 8, 1778, now 
accepted as one of Franklin's characteristic and clever bits of 
satire directed against Great Britain and its allies. It seems to have 
been revived in the German press in 1847 through an American 
"historian," Eugene Regnauld, of the St. Louis Reveille, and 
printed by Dr. Franz Loher, Professor and Member of the Royal 
Bavarian Academy of Sciences, in his History of Germans in 
America, Leipsic and Cincinnati, 1847, as an interesting, if doubt- 
ful, contribution to the contemporary documents of the American 
Revolution. A careful answer was supplied in the Grenzboten of 
185S (No. 29) by the Keeper of the Archives at Cassel, in copies or 
extracts from the MS. correspondence of the Landgraf Frederick 
>^ II with Heister and Knyphausen in reference to the Hessian losses 
~^ at Trenton. In fact, the regiments that suffered most there now 
make that battle part of their record of honor. It is one of their 
traditions that Ewald first threw aside the powdered queues and 
heavy boots of the Hessians, clothing his Yager battalion in a fash- 
ion suited to American climate and conditions, and thus set the 
example followed with great advantage in the Napoleonic wars. 
Other Hessian officers who had served here, notably Miinchhausen, 
Wiederhold, Ochs, Emmerich, Ewald and others, applied the les- 
sons they had learned here and became distinguished among the 
soldiers who showed great ability in restoring to Germany its inde- 
pendence of French mastery. The reputation brought home by 
the Hessians who served in America led Frederick the Great of 
Prussia to try to secure for his army the services of their officers, 
particularly of the Light Infantry and Yagers. Many of them won 
distinction in the wars with Napoleon against the French officers 
who had also served against them in America. The army lists of 
France, Germany and England are full of the names of those who 



ROSENGARTEN — AMERICAN HISTORY. 9 

had learned useful lessons in the art of war in the American Revo- 
lution. Even the pay, clothing, food and allowances of the Hes- 
sian soldiers were increased in order to secure something like the 
advantageous conditions under which officers and men served under 
the British flag in America and in the other wars and expeditions 
that were carried on largely by German allied troops. 

Of the German diaries and journals now accessible in print 
there are : 

1. Melsheimer, printed in Montreal from a copy furnished by 
Stone. 

2. Papet, in Pennsylvania Magazine of History. 

3. Dohla, printed by Ratterman in Deutsch. Anierik. Magazin, 
Vol. i, No. I, October, 1866. 

4. Pausch, printed by Stone in MiinseW s Series. 

5. Baurmeister, in Mag. of Afner. History, 1877, by Bierstadt, of 
the N. Y. Historical Society. 

6. Riedesel's Letters, in His Life by Eelking, reprinted in a 
translation by Stone. 

7. Madame von Riedesel's Letters, first printed in Berlin in 
1 80 1, and since then in several editions both in Germany and in 
this country. 

8. Schubert v. Senden's Journal (an extract was printed in 1839 
in Vol. xlvii of the Journal for Art, Science and History of 

War, Berlin, Mittler). 
Of others not yet printed there are MSS.: 

1. Malsburg, mentioned by Eelking as in his possession in Mein- 
ingen in 1862. Of it Bancroft's collection (now in the Lenox 
Library, N. Y.) has a copy in two volumes, made by Kapp's direc" 
tion, with his note that '' Malsburg was a superficial observer and 
reporter," as well as of: — 

2. Renter's, of Rail's regiment, 1776-83. 

3. Lotheisen's Journal of the Leib (Body Guard) Regiment, 
1776-84, with a description of Philadelphia in 1777-7. Eelking 
notes that he had compared the original signed by Lotheisen, Mar- 
burg, August I, 1784, with the copy. 

4. Piel, Lossberg Regiment, 1776-83, Vol. i, includes Diary of 
Voyage, 1782, and Extracts from Trenton Court of Inquiry. 

5. Steuernagel, Waldeck Regiment, 1776-83. 

6. Wiederhold, Diary. 

7. Ewald, Feldziig der Hessen in Amerika, copied from Ephem- 
eriden, Marburg, 1785. 



10 ROSENGARTEX— AMERICAN HISTORY. 

8. Journal of Lowenstein Regiment. 

9. That of Plattes Battalion by Bauer. 

10. That of Lossberg Regiment by Heusser. 

11. That of Huyn Regiment by Kleinschmidt. 

12. That of the Feldjager Corps. 

13. That of the Trumbach Regiment. 

14. That of the Knoblauch Regiment. 

15. That of the Mirbach Regiment. 

16. Reports of Knyphausen and Riedescl. 

Of printed books by Germans who served here, many are note- 
worthy, for instance, Friedrich Adolph Julius von Wangenheim, 
first lieutenant and later captain on the staff; came in 1777 from 
the ducal Gotha service into the Hessian Yager Corps, and 
remamed in it after the war. He published in Gottingen in 1781 
a Description of American Trees, with reference to their use in 
German forests, and this little volume, dated at Staten Island, was 
after his return, reprinted in 17S7 in a handsome illustrated folio 
He afterwards entered the Prussian forestry service and established 
near Berlin a small collection of American trees, still preserved 
with pride by his successors in office in charge of it and named 
" America. 

Dr. Johann David Schopf was a military surgeon in the German 
forces serving here during the American Revolution, and he 
printed in 1781 an account of his medical experiences, which was 
translated and reprinted in Boston in 1875. He also printed in 1787 
^Materia Mediea Americanis Septentionalis Potissimum Re^ni 

.Vf f ! ' '" "^'^''''^ ''" "'"^ '"^'^'■'^^ ^"PPlied to him by G. H E 
Muhlenberg of Lancaster. Later he returned here and ' hi; 
Travels published in 1 788, are well known, and he did even greater 
service by making American botanists and men of other scientific 
pursuits better known to those of Germany by exchange of let- 

LCI o^ tie • 

In 181 7 General Baron von Ochs published in Cassel his obser- 
vations on Modern Art of War, containing much of his personal 
experiences dunng his service in this country as a subaltern. His 
Life has a very good account of his services in this country 

In 1796 Ewald, then a lieutenant-colonel in the Danish service 

printed in Hesse Cassel ,n 1784; it is full of references to his per- 
sonal experiences in America, and it is significant of the man 



ROSENGARTEN — AMERICAN HISTORY. 11 

that, after carrying off from the Hopkinson house at Bordentown, 
N. J., the volume edited by Provost Smith of the College of Phila- 
delphia, containing young Hopkinson's Prize Essay, he returned it 
with thanks, and the book is still in the possession of the Hopkin- 
son family as one of their rare treasures. In his little book he 
reports what General Howe told him of his personal experience 
during the old French War in America, and confirms it by his 
success with light troops in the American War of Independ- 
ence. He gives a curious picture of Philadelphia in 1778, when 
Colonel von Wurmb had charge of the expeditions sent out to 
bring in supplies. He divided his force into three parties : one went 
out on the Lancaster road, another out the Marshall road, and the 
third out the Darby road — these three roads being parallel and only 
a half hour's march apart — the woods that lined them being thor- 
oughly searched by patrols, so that the enemy, in spite of Washing- 
ton and Morgan, could never reach the foragers. He speaks of the 
success of the Americans in their attacks on small and large English 
forces not properly protected by light infantry outposts. His own 
experience in the Seven Years' War in Europe was of service to him 
in America, and that again increased his efficiency in the war with 
France and Germany. He describes Pulaski's failure at Egg Har- 
bor, and Donop's at Red Bank, and Arnold's in Virginia, and 
Armand's at Morristown, and Tarleton's success, and his own, as 
examples of what light infantry can do or fail in, just as they are 
well or badly led. He criticises Howe's failure to follow up his 
success at Brandywine, and calls it building a golden bridge for the 
enemy thus to neglect to drive him with fresh troops when he is in 
retreat. In the Jerseys, on Rhode Island, at G'ermantown, in Vir- 
ginia, he saw just such examples of the neglect to use light infantry 
to advantage, and he points out many instances in which their value 
was shown on both sides. Ewald also printed at Schleswig, in 
1798, 1800 and 1803, three small volumes, Belehrungen ilber den 
Krieg, with anecdotes of soldiers from Alexander and Pompey to 
Frederick the Great and Napoleon, and some of his own personal 
experience in America. 

Seume, a well-known German writer, wrote at Halifax in 1782 
his account of his experience in the Hessian service ; it was first 
printed in Archenholz' Journal in 1789, and a translation is in the 
Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society for November, 
1887; it is also found in his Autobiography, published in his col- 



12 ROSENGARTEN — AMERICAN HISTORY. 

lected works, and the changes between this and the earlier version 
have been unfavorably commented on. 

Schlozer's Briefwcchsel, ten volumes, 1 776-1 782, and his Staats 
Anzeigen, a continuation, in eighteen volumes, contain many papers 
of interest relating to the American War of Independence, notably 
a series of letters from an officer who served under Burgoyne, and 
dragged out weary months as a prisoner of war in Cambridge and 
later in Virginia. The Frankfort Neuesten Staatshegehcnheiten 
published letters by German officers describing the battle of Long 
Island. 

V. Senden, Tagebuch, in Zeitschrift filr Geschichte dcs Krieges, 
Berlin, Mittler, 8th and 9th parts, 1839. He too was a general 
officer at the time of his death. 

V. Heister, Diary, in Zeitschrift filr Kunst des Krieges, Berlin, 
Mittler, Vol. xii. No. 3, 1828. 

Reimer, Amerikanisches Archiv., 3 vols., Brunswick, 1777-8. 

Melslieimer, Tagebuch, Minden, 1776. 

Riedesel, Mme., Die Berufsreise nach Amerika, Berlin, 1801 
(and frequently reprinted). One of the most charming books that 
can be found — full of womanly heroism. 

Leiste, Beschreibung des Britfischen Amerika, Wolfenbiittel,. 
1778. 

Schlieffen, Von den Hessen in Avicrika, 1782. 

Brunstoick Magazine, a Hessian journal reprinted in translation 
in the Pennsylvania Magazine, and a letter from the Duke to Rie- 
desel advising all supernumerary officers and sick and wounded and 
men under punishment \o remain in America. 

Der Hessische Officier in Amerika, a comedy, Gottingen, 1783, 
has no great literary value or importance, but some local interest, 
as the scene is laid in Philadelphia during its occupancy by the 
British, and Indians, Quakers, British and German soldiers and 
native citizens are among the dramatis personce. If it was not 
written by some one who had been here, it shows at least consider- 
able familiarity with the conflicting parties during the Revolution. 

Of recent works dealing with the German soldiers in the British 
army during the American War of Independence, the most notable 
are : 

Max von Eelking, Die Deutschen Hiilfstruppen im Nordameri- 
kanischen Befreiungskricge, 17 j6 bis iy8j. Hanover, 1863, 2 vols. 
(An abridged translation was printed by Munsell in Albany in i893.)> 



ROSENGARTEN — AMERICAN HISTORY. 13 

Eelking, Lebeti unci IVirken dcs Herzoglich Braunschwctgschen 
General Lietitcnants Friedrich Adolph von Riedesel, Leipzig, 1856, 
3 vols. (Stone's translation was printed by Munsell in Albany.) 
Esbeck, Zweibrilcken, 1793. 

Friedrich Kapp, Der Soldatenhandel Deutschen Filrsten nach 
Amerika, Berlin, 1864, and a second edition, 1874. His Life of 
Steuben and that of De Kaib were printed, the former in Berlin, 
1858, and the latter in Stuttgart in 1862, and both in English 
in New York subsequently. His Gescidchte der Deutschen in Staate 
New Yor/i, N. Y., 1869. His Friedrich der Grosse utid die Ver- 
einigten Staaten von Amerika, Leipzig, 1871. 

Ferdinand Pfister, Der Nordatnerikamsche Unabhdngigkeits 
Krieg, Kassel, 1864. 

An anonymous pamphlet, Friedrich II und die neuere Geschichte 
Schreiben, etc., Melsungen und Kassel, 1879, "^^^s translated (in 
an abridged form) and printed, with portraits of the two Electors 
of Hesse Cassel, father and son, who sent their soldiers to America 
under treaty with Great Britain, in The Pennsylvania Magazine 
of History and Biography in July, 1899. Besides its defense of the 
Hessian princes on the ground that their alliance was in con- 
formity with their traditional and historical cooperation with Great 
Britain, and a desperate and successful war in behalf of Protestant 
liberty against French tyranny and Romanism and the free-thinking 
Voltairianism of Frederick the Great of Prussia, it is of interest 
from its demonstration of the falsity of Seume's Autobiography, and 
from its denial of the authenticity of the pretended letter of the 
Elector of Cassel, urging his general not to cure sick and wounded 
Hessian soldiers, as the dead ones returned more profit to their 
Landesvater ! It is somewhat odd that this very letter should be 
claimed for Franklin as one of his literary burlesques by Tyler in 
his Literary History of the Afnerican Revolution (see Vol. ii, pp. 
377, 8-80), while Bigelow in his Life of Franklin (Vol. ii, p. 393) 
and in his Works of Franklin (Vol. v, J)p. 224 and 243, and Vol. 
vi, pp. 4-8), says it was written by Franklin not long after his 
arrival in France, in the latter part of 1776, and "is in some 
respects the most powerful of all the satirical writings of Franklin, 
equaled only by Swift in evolving both the horror and the derision 
of mankind." Franklin, in a letter to John Winthrop, sends from 
Paris on May i, 1777, " one of the many satires that have appeared 
on this occasion" — /. e., the sale of soldiers by German princes. 



14 ROSEXGARTEN — AMERICAN HISTORY. 

This pretended letter of Count de Schaumburg is dated Rome, 
February i8, 1777, but is not printed in Sparks, or any of the 
authorized editions of Franklin's works. It still remains a question 
of when and where and how it was first printed and published, — 
it does not appear in Ford's Franklin Bibliography, which prints 
most of Franklin's c\tvtx jeux d' esprit that were printed on his 
press at Passy and soon found their way into print in Europe and 
America, but Ford printed it in his Many-Sided Franklin, p. 244; 
Bigelow says it appears in a French version in Lescure Correspond- 
ence ineditc secrete stir Louis XVI (Vol. i, p. 31), Paris, but 
with no allusion to Franklin. No copy of it is found in the Amer- 
ican Philosophical Society's collection of the imprints of the Passy 
Press, although Ford accepts Sparks' and Bigelow's attribution of 
the authorship to Franklin, and the internal evidence fully confirms 
the statement ; it would be of interest to fix the time and place of 
its first publication, its fortune in being virulently attacked, and its 
use in exciting justifiable indignation against the Hessian princes 
who shared, with other German petty sovereigns, in the sale of sub- 
jects to fight under a foreign flag in a war which, as Frederick the 
Great said, was none of their business, — for these things have given 
it a value and importance far beyond the other satirical letters 
produced by Franklin at his busy Passy Press. 

Bancroft tells us that Frederick the Great encouraged France to 
enter into the alliance with America — a counter stroke of vast im- 
portance, far outweighing in its advantages for the struggling young 
republic any benefit gained for Great Britain by its costly pur- 
chase of German soldiers. His hostility to England, however, did 
not lead him to fulfill his implied promise to join France in its 
active and substantial support of the Americans — no doubt rebellion 
and independence were more than he could encourage, little as he 
liked the British effort to crush them. It is curious that Lowell 
should speak of Franklin's smart satire as a clumsy forgery. Kapp, 
in his Soldatenhandel (Berlin, 1864), prints the letter in the Appen- 
dix 29, on p. 267, from Vol. No. 600 of the pamphlets in the 
Library of the Historical Society of New York, and described as 
printed on six octavo pages, without place of publication, but in 
very large type. He reproduces the original French with all its 
typographical mistakes; he prints on pp. 196-7 of his book a Ger- 
man version of the letter, and speaks of it as one of a flood of 
pamphlets, of which a very characteristic example was Mirabeau's 



ROSENGARTEN — AMERICAN HISTORY. 15 

Avis aux Hessois et aicires Peuples de I'AllemagJie, Vendus par leurs 
Princes d rAngleterre, a Cleves chez Bertol, 1777, which is now 
very rare, Kapp says, because the Elector of Cassel bought up all 
the copies he could find. It is very characteristic of the two, Mira- 
beau and "Franklin, that the latter refers to his now famous letter 
only once, and that in sending it to his friend Winthrop, as one of 
the issues of the press then current, it nowhere appears in his 
printed works or correspondence, but in the Life of Mirabeau, by 
his son, it is said that the first work written by Mirabeau in Am- 
sterdam was the pamphlet Avis aux Hessois, pp. 12, 1775, that it 
was translated into five languages, and reprinted twice by Mirabeau, 
in V Espion devaiise, chap. 16, pp. 195-209, and in VEssai sur le 
despotisme, pp. 509-18, Paris, Le Gay, 1792, and Mirabeau him- 
self speaks of it in his Lettres de Vincennes on March 14, 1784, and 
March 24, 1786. A reply to it, Conseils de la raison, was published 
in Amsterdam in 1777, by Smidorf, supposed to be inspired by the 
Minister of the Elector of Hesse Cassel, Schlieffen ; to it Mirabeau 
replied in return in his Reponse aux Conseils de la Raison. All of 
these and other pamphlets, such as Raynal's on the side of the 
Americans, are now forgotten, but Franklin's clever skit continues 
to be reprinted and read, and to keep alive the feeling against the 
German princes who sent their soldiers to fight in a war which, as 
Frederick the Great said, was none of their business. However, 
the fact remains that it was through these Germans that America 
got many good citizens from their ranks, and better still, many of 
those who went home wrote of this country in a way that quick- 
ened emigration, in which, indeed, some of them took tlieir part 
later on. 

To this and similar attacks the Elector, through his Minister, 
Schlieffen, made answers in the Dutch newspapers, then the most 
largely sold,' because they were free from censorship. Abbe Ray- 
nal, then an accepted historical authority, supported Mirabeau's 
attack by one that was met by Schlieffen in 1782. Kapp says 
Franklin himself both inspired and drew from this flood of French 
pamphlets against Great Britain and its German allies ; but Kapp 
attributes this Hohendorff letter not to Franklin but to some French 
pamphleteer of Mirabeau's circle, and says it was revived by Loher 
at the time of the Know-Nothing agitation, and attributed to a St. 
Louis paper, although its falsity was shown in an article printed in 
the New Miltlary Jourtial, Darmstadt, 1858, No. 14. 



16 ROSENGARTEN — AMERICAN HISTORY. 

It was, as Bancroft tells us, a Count Schaumburg who acted as 
the go-between of the British Ministry, who made unsuccessful 
offers of pay for troops to the Duke of Saxe Weimar, dated Nov. 
26, 1777 : was that known to Franklin when he wrote his letter in 
the name of Count Schaumburg? No doubt he chose it in full 
consciousness that it would be familiar to his European readers, who 
would thoroughly enjoy seeing the English agent thus serving as a 
thin disguise for the Hessian prince, and the indignation excited 
by this clever and effective bit of satire would be directed' alike 
against master and man, against prince and agent, together trading 
for soldiers. 

In the French service under Rochambeau there were many Ger- 
:^ man soldiers, and Ratterman in Der Deutsche Pionier, Vol. xiii, 

/ 1 88 1, gives an account of them, notably the Zweibriicken regi- 

ment, of which two princes or counts of that name were respect- 
ively colonel and lieutenant-colonel. It is worth noting that 
Lafayette wrote to Washington of a visit to them in Zweibriicken 
long after the American war, when he met " Old Knyp " and offi- 
cers who had served both with and against him there. There 
was a battalion from Trier in the Saintonge regiment under Cus- 
tine, himself from Lothringen. There were Alsatians and Loth- 
ringers in light companies attached to the Bourbonnais and Sois- 
sonnais regiments. There were many Germans in the Duke de 
Lauzun's cavalry legion, whose names are printed from the records 
preserved in Harrisburg. In the army that made part of d'Es- 
taing's expedition against Savannah, in the autumn of 1779, there 
was an " Anhalt " regiment, 600 strong; of individual German 
officers with Rochambeau there were Count Fersen, his chief of 
staff, Freiherr Ludwig von Closen Haydenburg, his adjutant, Capt. 
Gau, his chief of artillery, and a Strasburg Professor Lutz, his 
interpreter. The Count of Zwei-liriicken (Deux-Ponts) published 
\i\% American Campaigns in Paris in 1786, and his pamphlet was 
translated and reprinted by Dr. Green, of the Massachusetts His- 
torical Society. Count Stedingk and Count Fersen both took ser- 
vice with Sweden, the latter to fall a victim to a popular outbreak, 
the former to take part in the Peace of Paris in 1814. 

Von Closen returned to Europe, became an officer of the house- 
hold of Marie Antoinette, and died in 1830, at Zweibriicken. 
Custine rose to high command in the French Revolution only to 
end his days on the guillotine; his biography has been printed 



ROSENGARTEX — AMERICAN HISTORY. 17 

both in French and German. Ratterman thinks at least one-third 
of Rochambeau's army at Yorktown consisted of Germans, Alsa- 
tians, Lothringers and Swiss. Gen. Weedon, he says, was born in 
Hanover, served in the Austrian War, 1742-81, and for his services 
at Dettingen was promoted first to ensign and next to lieutenant, 
coming in that rank to America in the Royal American Regiment 
under Bouquet. He became a captain in the Third Virginia, and 
colonel of the First Virginia, and later a brigadier-general of the 
Continental army. The Germans under Ewald were driven back 
by the Germans under Armand at Gloucester, Va., and in the siege 
of Yorktown, Deux-Ponts led his Germans in the attack on a 
redoubt defended by Hessians, and at several points commands 
were given on both sides in German. Washington and the King 
of France both commended the valor of the Zweibriicken regiment. 
German soldiers held the trenches on both sides when the surrender 
was finally made. German regiments under the French and Amer- 
ican flags received the surrender of German regiments — Anspach, 
Hessian, serving under the British flag — and the officers and men 
joined in warm greetings; the Anspachers offered to serve with 
their countrymen in Lauzun's Legion, an offer declined as a viola- 
tion of the terms of capitulation. The German novelist Sealsfield, 
in his story Morton, Stuttgart, 1844, describes Steuben's share in 
this crowning victory. Mr. J. F. Sachse has drawn from his large 
store of material a letter written by the Duke of Brunswick on 
February 8, 1783, to Gen. Riedesel, in view of the return of his 
force to Germany, in which he says that as not half of his officers 
and subordinates can remain in active service at home, while many 
of them must be reduced in rank and more discharged altogether, 
all who can had better remain in America, as he would not burthen 
his people and his war budget with pensions for young and able- 
bodied men; he therefore authorizes and recommends the discharge 
of officers, especially those of the staff, with six months' pay out of 
the regimental funds; non-commissioned officers, too, should be 
encouraged to take their discharge and stay in America, so that 
companies may be reduced to fifty in the infantry and thirty- six in 
the dragoons, and these must all be natives of Brunswick ; all men 
under punishment or charged with offenses or physically unfitted 
must be left behind. Chaplains, paymasters, surgeons, etc., who 
can make their living in America, were recommended to stay here. 
In this way, and with those who died in the service or deserted. 



18 ROSENGARTEX — AMERICAN HISTORY. 

the force returning to Brunswick was greatly reduced. This letter 
is printed in the Brunswick Magazine of June 4, 1825 ; the same 
and earlier numbers contain extracts from Papet's diary, which was 
then in possession of his son-in-law, Captain Heusler, in Brunswick. 
It was not until April 29, 1783, that peace was officially pronounced 
to the troops, and they sailed from Quebec on August ist for a six 
weeks' voyage home. 

Papet says that the deserters had a price put on their heads, and 
many of them were arrested and brought back, so that the Duke's 
orders were not very literally obeyed. On their return to Bruns- 
wick the division was reduced to an infantry regiment of two bat- 
talions and a small dragoon regiment. Among them were some 
black men enlisted by Gen. Riedesel as drummers. Until 1806 
the dragoons served as guard of the palace — a sort of recognition 
of their services. Riedesel named one daughter "Canada," she 
died in Canada; and another "America," who died in 1856. 
Eelking adds to his Life of Riedesel a list of officers, and among 
them Chaplain Melsheimer figures as a deserter, in 1779; Avhile 
Paymaster Thomas remained in America after the peace of 1 783, 
and so did Lieut, v. Reizenstein, Lieut, v. Konig, Ensign Langer- 
jahn, Ensign Kolte, Lieut. Bielstein, Lieut. Conradi, Lieut, v. Pui- 
seger, and Ensign Specht, while some of those reported " deserters " 
and "missing" no doubt remained in America. It is curious that 
in Riedesel's Life, with its voluminous correspondence with the 
Duke of Brunswick, there is no mention of the letter recommend- 
ing that his officers and men should be encouraged to remain in 
America. It looks very much as if Eelking thought it indiscreet 
to print it, as likely to invite hostile criticism, a caution that does 
not seem to have deterred the editor of the Brunswick Magazine in 
1825, a time when the censor kept a sharp eye on anything that 
might lessen the respect for the Landesvater. In its way it fully 
justifies Franklin's clever skit at the Elector of Hesse in the ficti- 
tious letter to his commander in America. There must still remain 
in Marburg and Cassel and Berlin and Brunswick, and in the pri- 
vate families of Germany, much interesting and valuable material 
throwing light on the Germans who served under the British flag in 
the War of American Independence. Is it not well worth while to 
get a complete descriptive catalogue of the papers in the Marburg 
Archives ? The expense would not be great, and that once secured, 
it would not be difficult to have similar catalogues made for other 



ROSENGARTEN — AMERICAN HISTORY. l9 

public collections. In the meantime efforts could be made to print 
such items of these catalogues as are new, and to enlist the help of 
private owners of papers of the kind in securing copies to use in 
printing in part or in whole for historical students. 

There is no better example of the interest in such material than 
the letters of Mme. Riedesel. Printed in Berlin in 1800, and again 
in 1 80 1, they first became known to English readers through por- 
tions of them printed by Gen. Wilkinson in his Memoirs, and re- 
printed in Silliman's Tour in Canada. In Germany they were 
reprinted in 1827, and again in 1881. 

The original edition was intended only for the family, and Gen. 
Riedesel himself died in 1800, before it appeared. His widow 
survived until 180S. Her daughters " Canada " and " America " 
perpetuate in their names their place of birth. The only son died 
in 1854, and with a grandson the last of the family ended. Amer- 
ican readers will always find interest in Mme. Riedesel's simple 
narrative of her life here. Mme. Riedesel's Letters were first 
issued in 1799 in a privately printed edition for the family and 
their friends, and regularly published in 1800; the latest German 
edition is that published in Tubingen in 1881, in which the letters 
of Riedesel, together with brief biographies of husband and wife, 
and an account of their children are given. It is stated in the 
Preface that of the 4300 Brunswick soldiers led by Riedesel from 
Germany to America only 2600 returned home with him. Of the 
1700 lost to their native country many were of course a gain for 
America. Riedesel died on January 5, 1800, after a harsh expe- 
rience in the Napoleonic wars. His wife died on March 29, 1808; 
their only son died in 1854, and the daughter " Canada " died in 
childhood ; the daughter "America " married and left children. 

General Stryker in the Appendix to his History of the Battle of 
Trenton prints (on pp. 396, etc.) the pretended letter from the 
Landgraf of Hesse, in which there is mention of the losses at 
Trenton, and at p. 401 Gen. Heister's report of that battle, and on 
p 403 the real letter written by the Prince of Hesse to Knyphausen, 
dated Cassel, i6th June, 1777, in which he speaks of the painful 
shock of the news, and directs a court of inquiry to investigate 
and a court-martial to try those responsible, and another of April 
23, 1779, insisting on a detailed explanation of the captains and 
others as to the finding of the original court ; these proceedings 
continued and a final verdict was arrived at in New York in Jan- 



20 ROSENGAETEN — AMERICAN HISTORY. 

uary, 1782, accompanied by a petition for mercy for those incul- 
pated but surviving. Rail and Dechow had paid the penalty with 
their lives. This was signed (among others) by Schlieffen in April, 
1782, and thus that incident was closed by the Elector's pardon to 
the survivors from the penalty imposed by the court-martial. The 
actual correspondence consisted of Gen. v. Heister's report, dated 
New York, January 5, 1777, answered by the Elector on April 7, 
regretting that Rail should have been entrusted with a post to which 
he was not entitled by seniority or service. That Kapp is mistaken 
in crediting the pretended letter to Mirabeau is best shown by 
comparing his wordy Avis aux Hessois with the short, sharp, pun- 
gent letter that bears internal evidence of Franklin's master hand. 
Reprinted by Ford and Stryker and Bigelow and Tyler, it is easily ac- 
cessible, while the Avis aux Hessois of Mirabeau is much less known, 
and a reprint of it may be of interest as one of the forgotten 
pamphlets of the man who later on played such a leading part in the 
French Revolution, yet failed to do for his country a tithe of the 
good that Franklin did for America. Still, it must not be forgotten 
that Mirabeau was one of the earliest French advocates of Ameri- 
can independence, and that his Avis aux Hessois was a warning 
note, the opening of a war of words, of a long-drawn-out battle of 
pamphlets, in which the American cause was fought for by French 
allies on the one side, and on the other by Germans in the pay of 
English and Hessian authorities. Undoubtedly Mirabeau's influ- 
ence led Beaumarchais to his best efforts to supply men and provi- 
sions and munitions of war for the American cause, culminating, 
largely, no doubt, through Franklin's efforts, in the alliance which 
played so great a part in the final result. 

Of even greater value, however, is Schiller's eloquent protest in 
his Kabale und Liebe against the sale of German soldiers to Great 
Britain to be used against America. Frederick the Great denounced 
his cousin of Hesse for selling his subjects to the English as one 
sells cattle to be dragged to the shambles. Napoleon made it one 
of his reasons for overthrowing the house of Hesse Cassel and 
making the country part of the Kingdom of Westphalia, over 
which his brother reigned. Lowell praises Mirabeau's pamphlet as 
an eloquent protest against the rapacity of the German princes 
who sold their subjects to Great Britain, and a splendid tribute to 
the patriotism of the Americans. Fortunately the large number of 
Germans who served in the American army on the patriot side. 



ROSENGARTEN — AMERICAN" HISTORY. 21 

from Steuben and De Kalb down to the humblest soldiers, greatly 
helped to secure American independence. Although Franklin's 
letter is printed in both Ford and Bigelovv's lives and books of 
Franklin, it may not be without interest to reproduce the original 
French and the pamphlet by Mirabeau, Avis aux Hcssois, the first 
of a long series of pamphlets, notably those by Schlieffen on the 
German side and by Raynal on the American side, for in their day 
these were most effective weapons in that war of pamphlets and 
books which greatly strengthened the American cause abroad. 
These copies I owe to the kindness of Mr. Wilberforce Fames, of 
the Lenox Branch of the New York Public Library ; the originals 
are part of the wealth of original papers and pamphlets and books 
collected by Mr. Bancroft as material for his history and now 
owned by the Lenox Library, Their free use for students of Amer- 
ican history is one of the advantages of this present generation. 



APPENDIX. 

I. 

Lettre du Landgrave de Hesse, au Commandant de ses 
Troupes en Amerique. 

Monsieur le Baron de Hogendorf je ne puis asses vous temoigner 
combien la Relation que vous mavez Envoye m'a comble de joye — I'a 
conduite de mes hessois qui sent fait Immoles si heroiquement 
pour une cause qui nous est si Etrangere, confirme toute I'opinion 
que javois de leurs bravoure, & Justifie I'Espoir que javois fondee 
sur leur attachement a mes Interes — mais je ne puis pardonner aux 
nouvellistes Anglois d'avoir diminue si fort, le nombre de nos morts — 
pourquoy n'avoir, pas a vouee franchement, qu'aulieu de neuf cent nous 
en avons perdu 1700! En veritie je ne trouverois Guere mon Compte 
a ce calcule, & je ne puis Tattribuer qu-a un motif tres Interresse de 
leurs part — ces Messieurs Croyent-ils done, que trentes Guinnes de plus, 
ou de mois me sont Indifferents ! & cela, apres un voiage aussi 
couteux, que celuy que je viens de faire, & qui, m'a fait contracter 
tant de nouvelles dettes .... non, mon cher, que votre Zele pour mon 
service, & vos desirs, pour contribuer a mes plaisirs Redoublent defforts 
en secondant par tous les moiens possibles, toutes les Occasion qui 
pourois se presenter pour animer, de plus en plus mes fideles sujets a 
se sacrifier Jusqu'au dernier meme. Pour Repondre a des vues aussi 
legitime, que necessaries. 



22 ROSEN GARTEN— AMERICAN HISTORY. 

Temoignes bien de m'apart au Colonnel M combien je suis 

m^content de la conduite qu'il a tenu jusqu-ici, — quoy ? Le seul de tous 
nos corps qui n'a perdue qu'un seul homme jusqu'a preserit — c'est, ce 

couvrir de honte, & Redoubler mes peines ; — la Signora F que 

je viens, d'Engager en Italie va me couter au de la de Cinq cents 
Guinees par an, & puis ces Anglois, voudroient encore mechicaner sur 
las blesses, & les estro pies — mais non ils me les payeront selon le 
meme Tarif fixe pour les morts — si non, jaime mieux, quils Imitent 
I'Exemple de ceux qui se sont laisses prendre a Trenton — en effets — a 
quoy meserviroient ses miserables ! ici ? Ils ne sont plus a bon a Rien ; 
d'ailleurs, ces maudits Rebelles qui, tirent toujours si bas, les auront 
sans doubte Rendus Impuissants, mais quant a cela, les Jesuites que 
j'ai envie d'appcller dans mes etats, s'en acquitteront mille, & mille fois 
mieux, & R6pareront bientot, toute la de population, qui ne s'y 
manifeste deja que trop, c'est un Expedient que m'a donne a Rome, le 

Cardinal T qui m'a promis de me menager cette afifaire avec 

toute la dexteritee Imaginable, — Vous ne sauriez croire (matil dit ;) 
combien la vue de tant de belles Guinees Ranime la vigueur. Or quoy 
qu'il en arrive jouissons du present & ne nous mettons pas en peine du 
Reste ; sur ce, je prie Dieu, qu'il vous tienne Monsieur le Baron de 
Hogendorf, en sa sainte, & bonne Garde, a Cassel, 1777. 



11. 

Avis aux Hessois et Autres Peuples de l'Allemagne 
Vendus par Leurs Princes a l'Angleterre. 

■ A Cleves. Chez Bertol. 1777. 

Quis furor iste novtis ? quo nunc, quo teiiditis ? — 
Heu ! miseri ewes ! non hostein, inimicaque castra ; 
.... Vesiras spes uritis. — Virg. 

Intrepides Allemands ! quelle fletrissure laissez vous imprimer sur vos 
fronts genereux ! quoi ! c'est a la fin du dix-huitieme siecle, que les 
peuples du centre de I'Europe sont les satellites mercenaries d'un odieux 
Despotisme ! quoi! ce sont ces valeureux Allemands, qui dcfendirent 
avec tant d'acharnement leur liberte contre les vainquueurs du monde, 
& braverent les armces Romaines, qui, sembables aux vils Africains, 
sont vendus & courent verser leur sang dans la cause des tyrans ! ils 
souffrent qu'on fasse chez eux LE Commerce des Hommes ! qu'on 
depeuple leurs villes, qu'on epuise leurs campagnes, pour aider 
d'insolens dominateurs a ravager un autre hemisphere ! . . . . Par- 
tageres vous, longtems encore, le stupide aveuglement de vos maitres 



ROSENGARTEN — AMERICAN HISTORY. 23 

• ■ . . VOLS, respectables soldats ! fidelles & redoutables soutiens 
de leur pouvoir ! de ce pouvoir qui ne leur fut confic- que pour 
proteger leurs sujets ! . . . . vous etes vendus ! .... Eh ' pour 
quel usage! justes dieux ! .... Amonceles comma des troupeaux 
dans des navires etrangers, vous parcourez les mers : vous volez a 
travers les ecueils & les tempetes. pour attaquer des peuples qui ne 
vous ont fait aucun mal ; qui defendent la plus juste causes, qui vous 
donnent le plus noble des exemples. Eh ! que ne les imitez vous. ces 
peuples courageux, au lieu de vous efforcer de les detruire ! ils brisent 
leurs fers: Hs combattent pour maintenir leurs droits naturals & 
garantir leur liberte : ils vous tendent les bras : ils sont vos freres ' ils 
sont doublement : la nature les fittals, & des liens sociaux ont confirme 
cestitressacres: plus de la moitie de ces pauple est composea da vos 
compatnotes, de vos amis, de vos parens. Ils ont fui la tyrannie aux 
extremitcs du monde ; & la tyrannie les y a poursuivis : des oppressaurs 
egalemant avidas & ingrats, leur ont forge des fers ; & les respectables 
Amencams ont aiguise ces fers. pour repousser leurs oppressaurs. .... 
Le nouveau monde va done vous compter au nombre das monstres, 
affames d'or & de sang, qui Font ravage ! Allamands. dont la loyaute 
fut toujours la caractere distinctif, ne fremissez vous pas d'un tel 
reproche ? A ces motifs, faits pour toucher des hommes, faut-il joindre 
ceux d'un mteret egalemant prassant pour des esclaves & des citoyans 
libres ? 

Savez vous quelle nation vous allez attaquer ? Savaz vous ce que 
peut le fanatisme de la liberte ? Cast le seul qui ne soit pas odieux : 
c est le saul respectable ; mais c'est aussi le plus puissant da tous. .... 
Vous na la savez pas, 6 peuples aveugles ! qui vous croyaz libres, en 
rampant sous la plus odieux des Despotismas : calui qui force au crime ! 
Vous ne le savez pas. vous qua la caprice ou la cupidite d'un Despote 
peuvent armer contre des hommes, qui meritant de I'humanite enticra. 
puis qu'ils defendant sa causa, & hii preparent un asile ! .... 6 
guarriers mercenaires ! 6 satellites des tyrans ! 6 Europeans cnerves ' 
vous allez combattre des hommes. plus forts, plus industrieux, plus 
couraga.ux, plus actifs, que vous ne pouvez I'etre : un grand interet les 
anime : un vil lucre vous conduit : ils defendant leur propriete, & com- 
battent pour leurs foyers : vous quittez les votres. & ne combattez pas 
pour vous : c'est au sain da leur pais, c'est dans leur climat natal, c'est 
aide de toutes les resources domestiques qu'ils font la guerre contre des 
bandes, que 1 'ocean a vomies, aprcs avoir prepare leur defaite. Las 
motifs les plus puissans & les plus saints excitant leur valeur, & appellent 
la victoire sur leurs pas. Des chefs, qui vous meprisant. en se servant 
de vous, opposeront da vaines harangues a I'eloquence irresistible de la 
liberte, du basoin, de la necessite. Enfin, & pour tout dire an un mot, la 
causa das Americains est juste : le ciel & la terre reprouvent celle que 
vous ne rougissez pas de soutenir : . . . . 



24 ROSENGARTEN — AMERICAN HISTORY. 

O Allemands ! qui done a souffle, parmi vous, cette soif de com- 
battre, cette frenesie barbare, cet odieux devouement a la tyrannic ? 

Non : je ne vous comparerai pas a ces fanatiques Espagnols, qui 
detruisoient pour detruire, qui se bagnoient dans le sang, quand la 
nature epuisee for<joit leur insatiable cupidite a faire place a une passion 
plus atroce. Des sentimens plus nobles, des erreurs plus excusables 
vous egarent. Cette fidelite pour vos chefs, qui distingua les Germains 
vos ancetres, cette habitude d'obeir, sans calculer qu'il est des devoirs 
plus sacres que I'obeissance, & anterieurs a tous les sermens, cette 
credulite qui fait suivre I'impulsion d'un petit nombre d'insenses ou 
d'ambitieux ; voila vos torts ; mais ils seront des crimes, si vous ne vous 
arretez au bord d'abime .... deja ceux de vos compatriotes, qui vous 
ont precedes, reconnoisent leur aveuglement ; ils desertent ; & les bien- 
faits de ces peuples, qu'ils egorgeoient n'aguere, & qui les traitent en 
freres, aujourd'hui qu'ils ne leur voient plus en main le glaive des 
bourreaux, aggravent leur remords, & doublent leur repentir. 

Profitez de leur exemple, 6 Soldats ! pensez a votre honneur : pensez 
a vos droits : . . . . n'en avez vous done pas comme vos chefs ? . . . . 
Oui : sans doubte : on ne le dit point assez : les hommes passent avant 
les Princes, qui pour le plupart, ne sont pas dignes d'un tel nom : 
laissez a d'infames courtisans, a d'impies blasphemateurs, le soin de 
vanter la prerogative royale : & ses droits illimites : mais n'oubliez point 
que TOUS ne furent pas faits pour UN : qu'il est un autorite superieure 
a toutes les autorites : que celui qui commande un crime, ne doit 
point etre obei : & qu'ainsi votre conscience est le premier de vos 
chefs 

Interrogez la cette conscience : elle vous dira, que votre sang ne doit 
couler que pour votre patrie : qu'il est atroce de recevoir de I'argent 
pour aller egorger, a plusieurs milliers de lieues des hommes, qui n'ont 
d'autres relations avec vous que cellos, qui doivent leur concilier votre 
bienveillance. 

Elle pretend faire une guerre legitime, cette Metrople, qui s'epuise 
pour ruiner ses enfans ! elle reclame ses droits. & ne veut les discuter 
qu'avec la foudre des combats ! . . . . mais fussent-ils reels, ces droits, 
les avez vous examines ? Est-ce a vous a juger ce proces ? Est-ce a 
vous a prononcer I'arret ? Est-ce a vous a I'executer ? . . . . Eh ! 
qu'importent apres tout ces vains titres si problematiques & si 
contestes ? L'homme, dans tous les pais du monde, a le droit d'etre 
hereux. Voila la premiere des loix : voila le premier des titres : 
des colonies ne vont point fertiliser des terres nouvelles, augmenter 
la gloire & la puissance de la mtre-patrie, pour en etre opprimees 
. . . . le sont-elles ? EUes ont le droit de secouer le joug : parce que 
le JOUG n'est pas fait pour l'homme. 

['- Mais, qui vous a dit que les Anglois avoient sign6 I'arret de proscrip- 
tion lance contre les Americains ? . . . . Braves Allemands ! on vous a 



ROSENGARTEX — AMERICAN HISTORY. 25 

trompe. N'avilissez pas par un tel soupcjon une nation qui a produit de 
grands hommes & de belles loix, qui nourrit longtems dans son sein le 
feu sacre de la liberte, & merite, a ces litres, du respect & des egards 
.... Helas ! dans les isles Britanniques, comme dans le reste de 
I'univers, un petit nombre d'ambitieux agite le peuple & produit les 
calamites publiques. Le moment de crise est arrive. I'Angleterre n'est 
divisee, malheureuse, en guerre contre ses freres, que parce que le 
Despotisme lutte depuis quelques annees avec avantage contre la liberte. 
Ne croyez done pas defendre la cause des Anglois : vous combattez pour 
I'accroissement de I'autorite de quelques ministres qu'ils abhorrent & 
meprisent. 

Les voulez vous connoitre, les veritables motifs qui vous mettent les 
armes a la main ? 

Un vain luxe, des depenses meprisables ont ruine les finances des 
Princes qui vous gouvernent ; leurs spoliations ont tari leurs resources ; 
ils ont trop souvent trompe la confiance de leurs voisins, pour y 
recourir encore. II faudroit done renoncer a ce faste excessif, a ces 
fantaisies sans cesse renaissantes, qui sont leur occupation la plus 
importante ; ils ne peuvent s'y resoudre ; ils ne le feront pas ; 
I'Angleterre epuisee d'hommes & d'argent, achete a grand? frais de 
I'argent & des hommes Vos Princes saisissent avidement cette resource 
momentanee & ruineuse : ils levent des Soldats : ils les vendent : ils les 
livrent : voila I'emploi de vos bras : voila a quoi vous etiez destines, 
Votre sang sera le prix de la corruption, & le jouet de I'ambition. Cette 
argent, qu'on vient d'acquerir, en commer<jant de vos vies, paiera des 
debtes honteuses, ou aidera a en contracter de nouvelles. Un avide 
usurier, une meprisable Courtisane, un vil histrion, vont recevoir ces 
guinees donnees en echange de votre existence. 

O dissipateurs aveugles ! qui vous jouez de la vie des hommes, & 
prodiguez les fruits de leurs travaux, de leurs sueurs, de leurs substance, 
un repentir tardif, des remords dechirans seront vos bourreaux, mais ne 
soulageront pas ces peuples que vous foulez ; vous regretterez vos 
laboureurs & leurs moissons, vos Soldats, vos sujets ; vous pleurerez 
sur les malheurs, dont vous memes aurez ete les artisans, & qui vous 
envelopperont avec tout votre peuple. Un voisin formidable sourit de 
votre aveuglement, & s'apprete a en profiter ; il forge deja les fers, 
dont-il medite de vous charger : vous gemirez sous le poids de vos 
chaines, fussent-elles d'or; & votre conscience, alors plus juste que 
votre coeur ne fut sensible, sera la furie vengeresse des maux que vous 
aurez faits. 

Et vous peuples trahis, vexes, vendus, rougissez de votre erreur : que 
vos yeux se dessillent : quittez cette terre souillee du despotisme : 
traversez les mers : courez en Amerique ; mais embrassez y vos freres ; 
•defendez ces peuples genereux, contre I'orgueilleuse rapacite de leurs 
persecuteurs : partagez leur bonheur : doublez leurs forces : aidez-les 



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26 ROSENGARTEN — AMERICAN HISTuxvi. '°^ ^^^ ^ 

de votre industrie : appropriez vous leurs richesses en les augmentant : 
tel est le but de la societe : tel est le devoir de rhomme, que la nature 
a fait pour aimer ses sembables, & non pas pour les egorger : apprenez 
des Americains I'art d'etre libre, d'etre hereux, de tourner les 
institutions sociales au profit de chacun des individus qui composent 
la societe : oubliez dans le respectable asile, qu'ils offrent a I'humanite 
souffrante, les delires, dont vous futes les complices & les victimes : 
connoissez la vraie grandeur : la vraie gloire : la vraie felicite : que 
les nations Europeennes vous envient, & benissent la moderation 
des habitans du nouveau monde, qui dedaigneront de venir les punir 
de leurs forfaits, & de conquerir les terres depeuplees, que foulent 
des tyrans a oppresseurs & qu'arroseent de leurs larmes des esclaves 
opprimes. 



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